Final Score Power Index - an objective evaluation of NFL teams, based on final scores of games played.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

NFL Week 6 APR vs. ESPN

What this is

A comparison of
APR's
Week 6 power rankings with
ESPN's
rankings for the same week of games. This acts as a sanity check
(both ways) to see what teams are over- or underrated.

Only teams that are at least 9 positions apart are listed. The
number in parentheses is the difference between APR's rank and
ESPN's rank.

Teams ESPN likes more than APR:

Giants (+10)

A little closer than last week. Maybe APR has them
underrated at #21, but given the way the Giants struggled against
the Cardinals and Seahawks, I'm not sure how much higher they should
really go right now.

Chargers (+9)

The good news for the Chargers is that they've actually managed a
decent start at 4-1. The bad news is, the 4 teams they beat are a
combined 4-17, and none of those wins were a blow-out you'd expect
when a good team plays a very bad one. I've learned my lesson (at
least for the moment) about making absolute pronouncements, but I
will say that the Chargers are not showing the signs of a top-10
team.

On the bubble:

Nobody closer than +6 (Steelers, Bucs, Browns)

Teams APR likes more than ESPN:

Cowboys (-14)

APR likes close losses more than it should, and the Cowboys have a
bunch: their 3 losses are by a combined 11 points, all to
highly-ranked teams. I'm willing to stipulate that they're not a
top-10 team right now, but ESPN's ranking of #21 is too low as
well.